


Based on a True Story

by hollycomb



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-12-12 04:31:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/807251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollycomb/pseuds/hollycomb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone on Earth makes a movie about the heroic maiden voyage of the Enterprise and some of the details are a bit off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Based on a True Story

Sulu has been avoiding the movie ever since he heard the first rumors that it would be made, and there isn't anyone in the universe who could convince him to actually sit down and watch it. Except Chekov, of course, who shows up with a data file and replicated popcorn, which tastes even more like some combination of cardboard and air than non-replicated popcorn does. But he's Chekov, and Sulu has this unfortunate tendency to do whatever Chekov asks him to when he gives Sulu that impish pleading look, so he groans and allows him in, popcorn already spilling onto the floor as Chekov makes his way happily over to Sulu's bed.  
  
"It will be funny, Hikaru," Chekov says as he loads the data into the visual receiver on Sulu's view screen. The view screen is mounted on the wall across from Sulu's bed, so of course Chekov makes himself at home there, leaning against Sulu's pillows as he munches his popcorn, some of which tumbles onto the sheets.  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure," Sulu says doubtfully as he settles down beside Chekov. "Uhura showed me a picture of the guy they picked to play me. He's some beefcake martial arts star --"  
  
"Henry Matsui! Yes! And the one who plays me very much like a girl. I don't like it, either, but we will laugh about it, okay?"  
  
"I don't see why we should subject ourselves willingly to torture," Sulu says, but he folds his hands over his stomach and makes himself comfortable as the movie company's logo blares onto the view screen. Kirk attended the premiere, of course, when this thing came out a few years back.  
  
"Shhh, it's starting," Chekov says as a computer generated Enterprise soars across the screen.  
  
"Wait a minute, why is Kirk already the Captain?" Sulu asks, gesturing with indignation as the guy playing Kirk, who is about a foot taller and way more handsome than the real Kirk, trots confidently across the deck, barking orders at the guy who is playing Sulu, who Sulu actually sympathizes with in the moment.  
  
"Is ninety percent of the movie a flashback or what?" Sulu asks.  
  
"The _Keptin_ did tell me that they took creative license with some details," Chekov says, rubbing his chin the way he does when an equation needs balancing.  
  
"Why are Kirk and Spock already in a fist fight?"  
  
"I think in this version Mr. Spock is trying to take control of the ship from the _Keptin_ because he is under the influence of an alien that has possessed his brain somehow."  
  
Sulu scoffs. "Oh, of course, I forgot all about that part." Sulu rolls his eyes. "This is absurd -- look at Uhura! What are those shorts? That's supposed to be a Federation uniform? She looks like she's about to serve them hot wings!"  
  
Chekov laughs. "She was not happy about that," he says, beaming at the view screen as if this debacle is the most entertaining thing he's ever seen.  
  
"Why are they calling her Nicky?"  
  
"I believe the director thought that Nyota was too difficult to pronounce. Uhura was not happy about that, either."  
  
"Why is Kirk totally kicking Spock's ass? Don't they know anything about Vulcan strength in Hollywood?"  
  
"Hikaru, you keep asking me these questions as if I will have answers."  
  
" _Keptin_!" the Chekov in the movie shouts, standing from his place at the console. Sulu laughs uproariously at the American actor's horrible Russian accent, and Chekov hits him.  
  
"What is it, Ensign?" movie Kirk asks, looking at movie Chekov as if he's an irritating mosquito who is buzzing near his ear. In fact, that's kind of how the actor is playing the role, bouncing on his heels and hyperventilating at the opportunity to tell the Captain something useful. The movie Chekov is all wrong for the role in the physical department, his hair way too blond and his frame way too willowy.  
  
"Zey are lowering zee drill, sir!" movie Chekov squeaks out, and Sulu is now laughing so hard that he can't breathe, Chekov continuing to pummel him, which only makes Sulu laugh harder.  
  
"Oh my God," Sulu says, gasping the words out as his eyes begin to water with laughter. "They got you just right."  
  
"Shut up," Chekov says, but he's laughing, too, and leaning against Sulu's shoulder as the movie continues. Chekov is always doing this, and Sulu isn't sure if it's a Russian thing or a teenager thing or what, but he doesn't mind having Chekov leaning on him and grabbing at him for emphasis all the time.  
  
"I've got to get out there and stop them," movie Kirk says very gravely. "Who here is brave enough to come with me?" he asks the others on the bridge, his voice booming and his jaw tight.  
  
"Not a bad approximation of Kirk, actually," Sulu says, just as his movie counterpart stands from his chair dramatically.  
  
"Sir!" movie Sulu says, frowning with utmost seriousness in Kirk's direction. "I think I may be be of some assistance. My grandfather instructed me in the ways of the ninja."  
  
"The ways of the ninja?" Sulu shouts, sitting up to gape at the screen in disbelief. Chekov hangs on his shoulders, shaking with laughter.  
  
"Is that even a thing?" Sulu asks, turning toward Chekov, and maybe their faces are a little too close, but Chekov just grins. "The ways of the ninja?"  
  
"Sounds more legitimate than beating Romulans with fencing skills, I think," Chekov says, and when he says _lee-gee-tee-meet_ Sulu thinks maybe they actually had something with that accent in the movie.  
  
Sulu sinks back onto the pillows with a sigh, and Chekov stays at his side, curled there thoughtlessly, his chin almost on Sulu's shoulder as he watches movie Kirk and movie Sulu prepare to board the shuttle that will take them to the drill.  
  
"At least the drill effects are cool," Sulu mutters, beginning to feel a little nervous about Chekov's proximity. His breath smells like popcorn and the sweet tarts that McCoy is always telling him he'd better stop eating if he wants to keep his teeth past the age of thirty. Sulu is not surprised that they got Chekov all wrong in this movie, and it's not just because he has no faith in cinematic interpretations of reality. Chekov is hard to figure out. Sulu has known him for over two years now, and he still doesn't really know what to do with him.  
  
"Hikaru!" the Chekov in the movie says, stopping movie Sulu before he can follow Kirk onto the shuttle. Movie Chekov looks up at movie Sulu with big, blue eyes that are only a crass approximation of the real thing.  
  
"Be careful," he says breathlessly, and movie Sulu nods in a businesslike way before putting on his helmet and boarding the shuttle. There's a lingering shot on movie Chekov looking weepy and terrified as the shuttle doors close.  
  
"That didn't happen," Chekov says. He seems embarrassed, as if they're watching surveillance footage from two years ago and not some ridiculous mockery of what they really went through.  
  
"Yeah," Sulu says. Everything had happened so fast that day. He'd raised his hand without thinking and suddenly he was diving through the air toward a Romulan-manned weapon of mass destruction. There were no goodbyes or well wishes, not that he would have shared them with Chekov even if there had been more time. They had barely known each other, then. They met, and a couple of hours later they were fighting for their lives together.  
  
The action scene on the Romulan drill does make Sulu look like a total bad ass, which he appreciates, though the martial arts moves are a little cheesy. In reality, he hadn't even been able to think straight, just went into autopilot until suddenly he was falling off the drill and not really expecting Kirk to come diving after him the way he did. He certainly wasn't expecting to be saved by anybody once it was the two of them falling toward Vulcan, both parachutes gone. Everything was so insane once they got back that he didn't learn that it had been Chekov who saved him until the medal ceremony at the Academy two weeks after they returned to Earth.  
  
"Hikaru!" the Chekov in the movie screams frantically when his monitor shows the blip that represents Sulu falling toward Vulcan. He tears away from the console, knocking several people over on his way out into the hall, breathing heavily as if he's already been running for hours. Sulu starts to laugh, but when he looks over at Chekov he seems supremely annoyed, especially when the Chekov in the movie doesn't run into the teleportation bay and save Kirk and Sulu with locking precision that he later claimed he learned from playing video games. Instead, movie Chekov throws on a jump suit and climbs into a shuttle which for some reason has a WARP SPEED option on its dash.  
  
"Uh," Sulu says, laughing. "I wasn't aware that shuttles equipped with warp engines come standard on Federation vessels now, or two years ago, for that matter. Must have missed that issue of Astrophysics Monthly." He glances over at Chekov, but Chekov is still not laughing as he watches his movie counterpart dive out of the shuttle in midair and use some kind of crazy jet pack thing to streak down and scoop Kirk and Sulu up, saving them in the nick of time.  
  
"That was ridiculous," Sulu says, elbowing him.  
  
"Yes," Chekov says, frowning at the screen. "I did not act like this."  
  
"Uh! No kidding, but I was referring more to the fact that it took Kirk and I like twenty minutes to almost crash onto Vulcan."  
  
Chekov says nothing, so Sulu turns back to the screen, watching as the Kirk, Sulu, and Chekov characters are beamed onto the ship as if that part was nothing. They land in the teleportation bay, and never mind about Vulcan crumbling away, that happens offscreen and nobody seems to care. There's no scene with Spock hurrying to try and save his parents. Instead, he gets into another fist fight with Kirk, because apparently he's still possessed by an alien, or maybe Hollywood just really has issues with Vulcans and the alien Spock is possessed by is Spock.  
  
Cut to Sulu and Chekov, who are helping each other up, out of breath, their cheeks streaked with dirt for some reason but their hair still perfect. When they're standing, Chekov stares up at Sulu adoringly and Sulu touches Chekov's face as if he's having some kind of epiphany.  
  
"You saved me," movie Sulu says, and movie Chekov's big eyes fill with tears.  
  
"Hikaru, I had to save you," movie Chekov says. "I - I love you."  
  
"Oh, Pavel! I love you, too. I only volunteered for that mission to impress you."  
  
And then they kiss for quite awhile, until, mercifully, the scene is interrupted by a shot of Kirk punching Spock in the jaw.  
  
Chekov shouts something in Russian that sounds like a curse and sits up from the pillows he was lounging on, glaring at the view screen as if he's challenging it to a fight.  
  
"Hikaru!" he says, turning on Sulu as if he's betraying Chekov by not getting this angry himself. He has this particular way of saying Sulu's name when he's upset that kind of melts Sulu to nothing. Hi- _ka_ -ru! with the _ka_ being especially sharp and indignant.  
  
"Yeah," Sulu says, feeling kind of dazed and guilty, as if he just dreamed what he saw on the view screen and Chekov somehow saw it. "That was pretty fucking nuts. I can't believe Jim came home from the premiere and didn't immediately give us a hard time about that."  
  
"I cannot believe they would invent something like this," Chekov says. He narrows his eyes at the screen again, his cheeks going red with fury. "This is -- where do they --"  
  
"Hey, hey, calm down. They made Spock and Kirk hate each other because it was more interesting that way. And okay, maybe they kind of did hate each other back then, um, but they were just trying --"  
  
"We did not even know each other then, Hikaru, I wanted to save you and Kirk only because I knew that I could, I knew that I could help you and you were my crew mate --"  
  
"Jesus, Pavel, we'll turn it off if you're going to get this upset about it." Sulu was creeped out by the sight of that bizarro world Sulu and Chekov making out, too, but he's starting to feel a little insulted by Chekov's violent reaction. He doesn't see how Chekov can justify getting furious about anyone having the idea that he and Sulu might be together when Chekov is the one who is always hanging on Sulu's shoulder and leaning across the conn to whisper nonessential questions in his ear: _Hikaru, when is your shift over? What are you doing afterward? Do you want to play basketball with me? Why are you too tired to play basketball? What time did you go to bed last night? What do you think of the Keptin's new hair cut?_ To Sulu it always seems like Chekov wants to linger at his shoulder more than he really wants the answers to any of his questions, but if he's this horrified by some cheesy scene in a stupid movie, maybe not.  
  
Sulu turns the movie off and Chekov sits pouting on the other side of the bed, his arms crossed over his chest. Sighing, Sulu picks up the bowl of popcorn and brings it over his desk.  
  
"See, I told you this was a bad idea," Sulu mutters, feeling defensive.  
  
"I never thought it would be like that," Chekov says. "That is cruel how they made us look."  
  
"God, Pavel, everybody looked like an idiot. Doesn't Uhura's character have a sex scene with Kirk's at the end? Don't be so fucking sensitive."  
  
He stares down at his desk, already feeling guilty for speaking harshly to Chekov, which he's never done before. When he looks back over his shoulder Chekov is still sitting on the bed, staring into space with a scowl as if he didn't even hear Sulu, anyway.  
  
"I feel like someone has taken pictures of me while I was naked and then changed them so that they look worse," Chekov says, not meeting Sulu's eyes. He curses in Russian and puts his hands over his face. "That sounded stupid in English."  
  
"No, it didn't." Sulu sighs. "I mean. It's embarrassing, I agree."  
  
Chekov leans back onto the pillows again with a groan, and picks at his fingernails for awhile, his face still red with rage. As usual, Sulu doesn't really know what to do with him. He walks back over to the bed and sits on the edge, staring at Chekov until he finally looks up. His eyes are softer, but his face is still red.  
  
"They don't even know us," Chekov says. "The people who made this movie."  
  
"Right. I mean. Sure."  
  
"They clearly did no research. It is very irresponsible, Hikaru."  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Hikaru, why aren't you more angry? This is about you, too," Chekov says, gesturing at the blank view screen.  
  
"It's just a stupid movie," Sulu says. "They got everybody wrong, including us." For some reason, it hurts to say so, as if he's reached out and ripped poor movie Sulu and movie Chekov apart in mid-kiss. Chekov wilts and looks down at his hands again.  
  
"That actor did not look like you," Chekov says glumly.  
  
"Yeah, they didn't really cast anybody very well. Except for Spock, actually."  
  
"The man who played him was human!" Chekov says, grinning a little.  
  
"Well, Spock's half-human, and those ears looked pretty authentic to me."  
  
Chekov laughs and leans back onto Sulu's pillows. Every conversation they have always seems to take place in Sulu's bed. Maybe people on board think they're secretly having sex in here, not just long conversations about temporal physics and bad movies. Maybe the rumors made it all the way back to Earth, to Hollywood.  
  
"I didn't save you because I loved you," Chekov says very seriously, looking up at Sulu.  
  
"I know that," Sulu says, feeling like he's been slapped. Of course Chekov didn't love him then. He had no reason to. Sulu was just a guy who was about to die. Chekov was just the guy who saved him.  
  
"But when you came back," Chekov says. His voice is softer, and his eyes drop away from Sulu's. "And you had those bruises on your face." He leaves off there, his cheeks still so red.  
  
"The punched-by-a-Romulan bruises," Sulu says, touching his cheeks. "Too bad they didn't leave bad ass scars, right?" His heart is pounding, and maybe if he makes jokes, like he always does when Chekov gets too close, he can keep himself grounded in reality, where Chekov has definitely never loved him. He just likes sitting in Sulu's bed, sometimes until three o'clock in the morning, when Sulu falls asleep beside him and Chekov keeps talking until he finally notices that he's talking to himself and wakes Sulu up by climbing over him, whispering goodnight before he goes. Yeah, that's all.  
  
"Pavel," Sulu says, and something about the way Chekov jerks his eyes up to Sulu's so quickly hits him like Chekov has already grabbed his face, already kissed him. But that was just a movie.  
  
"Your face looked different when you came back," Chekov says, almost too quiet to hear. "I noticed it more, after that."  
  
"Well." Sulu scoots over to sit beside Chekov, against the pillows. "Yours looked the same, but. I always liked yours."  
  
Chekov grins, and when Sulu kisses him it's nothing like the movie, hungry and dramatic with the music swelling. They're both cautious, hands shaking on each other's cheeks, noses bumping, touching the tips of their tongues together very softly. At first, anyway. As soon as Sulu feels Chekov's shuddering breath pushing hard against his bottom lip he sort of loses control and buries Chekov against the pillows, kissing the breath out of him until they're both gasping against each other's mouths.  
  
"And I totally didn't go on that mission just to impress you," Sulu says, his chest crashing down onto Chekov's as Chekov stares up at him, awestruck and lust-blown, his cock already hard against Sulu's.  
  
"Though I did kind of hope," Sulu says, breathless and fighting the words out, "When I got back, when I saw you gaping at me the way you did, I fucking hoped you were impressed."  
  
"Hikaru," Chekov cries, and Sulu kisses him again. They squirm against each other until they've found the right angle, their erections sliding together with electric heat that makes them both groan. Chekov curses when he comes, curling up around Sulu like he's lost his gravity. Sulu growls and grinds down hard against Chekov's trembling thigh, sucking in a deep breath full of the smell of him before he comes, emptying what feels like two years worth of seed into his underwear, and how did he not realize that he's been so fucking _full_? It almost hurts to let go of it, his whole body shuddering violently until he's finally empty, but when he's finished Chekov is there to kiss his face and rub his back.  
  
"I was so impressed, Hikaru," Chekov says, giving him a shaky smile, and for a moment Sulu thinks he's referring to Sulu's orgasm and not his efforts with the Romulans. "I think – that awful movie – but I do think of it, sometimes, in bed, when I am, you know – there is one scenario I picture very often, you in that jump suit, those cuts on your cheeks, you take me to my room and fuck me just like that, still wearing the suit."  
  
Sulu laughs, pushing his face against Chekov's hot cheek. "I'm not sure if the suit had a cock-access flap," he says. "Didn't have time to investigate. But yeah, I'm sure if we turned the movie back on, that's totally what happens. I whisk you away to thank you for saving my life. And what expresses gratitude better than a cock up your ass, hmm?"  
  
"Don't joke," Chekov says, though he's laughing.  
  
"Oh, I'm not joking. Give me five minutes and you'll get your thank you fuck." He lifts his head up and kisses Chekov's face maybe a thousand times. "If you still want it."  
  
"Yes, I still want it," Chekov says. He holds Sulu tightly and sighs against his forehead. "I was beginning to think I had remained a virgin for nothing."  
  
"Oh, God," Sulu moans, writhing against him. "Okay, two minutes."  
  
Chekov laughs, and Sulu loves that feeling, Chekov's body shaking beneath him like a little earthquake. He's so glad they can joke about this, the thing between them that Sulu has been afraid to touch for two years, because it's pretty fucking huge and it all started just after Chekov saved Sulu's life, with one look in the teleportation bay that locked them together forever. If they couldn't keep a sense of humor about it they'd be making weeping speeches to each other all the time, which would be totally unrealistic, too much like a movie, despite the fact that their lives have been a little like one so far.


End file.
